This year of change continued Thursday with the final Rockets game on Fox Sports Houston, which signed on as Home Sports Entertainment in January 1983 with a Rockets game and had been the team's cable/satellite home, except for a brief period, ever since.

But what escaped my notice until this week is that Thursday also marked the end of the Rockets' contract with KILT (610 AM), their radio flagship since 2002.

We know that when the Rockets next take the court, they will be seen on the newly launched Comcast SportsNet Houston. But where will they be heard?

KILT's new contract with the Texans binds CBS Radio even more fervently with the NFL. The Rockets are KILT's second team, and I can't imagine that sits well with management.

So I think it's fair to assume Rockets radio rights will be in play. The team will not comment, and KILT program director Gavin Spittle also declined comment Thursday.

Possible alternatives include Clear Channel's KBME (790 AM) or KTRH (740 AM). If Comcast retains KFNC (97.5 FM), maybe the Rockets would choose to capitalize on the NBA's relationship with ESPN. And if you're looking for a dark horse, what about supplementing news with sports on KROI (92.1 FM)?

While we await a decison, the Rockets' radio future is another variable in a market filled with moving parts.

Cable changes

Every time I mention CSN Houston, someone asks if it will be available only to Comcast cable subscribers.

That's not the case. It will be offered to DirecTV, Dish Network, U-verse and other cable providers, who must strike a deal with the NBC Sports Group to carry it.

As for Fox Sports Houston, it will continue with Astros games through the end of the baseball season. Don't be surprised if the Houston area is subsequently folded back into the greater five-state Fox Sports Southwest empire.

Jon Heidtke, longtime general manager for the Fox regional network, said last week in College Station the future of the FS Houston footprint has yet to be decided.

"We will be bringing events into the Houston marketplace with the Texans and Dynamo and our high school coverage, and I certainly anticipate we will always have a presence (in Houston)," Heidtke said. "But as we bring more content in from around the region (including a full load of Rangers games next season), having Houston fall under the Southwest banner is an option rather than having a branded Houston entity. We wouldn't have the (satellite) transponder needs for Astros and Rockets games."

Voice of the Skeeters

Thursday's inaugural Sugar Land Skeeters game also featured the debut of Fort Bend County native and University of Texas graduate Lane Zieben calling play-by-play on the team's website, SugarLandSkeeters.com, and Cox Radio's websites at TheNew93Q.com and HoustonsEagle.com.

Zieben, who grew up in the First Colony area and graduated from Elkins High School, spent the past six years in Austin, graduating from Texas in 3½ years and building up his résumé calling Longhorns soccer, softball and volleyball games and assembling and voicing video highlights for the Round Rock Express games.

"When I heard rumblings about the Skeeters, my first thought was how I could get on with them," Zieben said. "I contacted them a year before they were thinking about hiring a broadcaster, and I checked back again in six months and every time I came to town to visit my family."

He admires Jim Nantz's delivery,Mike Tirico's versatility, Bob Costas' storytelling ability and Blackburn's hustle, which has influenced his own. And now he has a chance to show what he can do in the biggest grind of them all: 140-plus baseball games, home and away.

"It's my show to run," he said. "But I'm confident. I'm grateful to the people who have helped get me to this position, and now it's paying it forward. You have to meet the right people who know how much you care about what you want to do. Carter gave me that opportunity, and now it's paying off."

Four DVRs, no waiting

KPRC (Channel 2) has its second Dynamo away game at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at D.C. United.Glenn Davis and Eddie Robinson will call the game with Channel 2 reporter Ryan Korsgard on the sidelines. …

The nationwide sports migration to FM continues, with ESPN announcing a deal Thursday to move its New York station from 1050 AM to 98.7 FM, where it will displace the legendary urban station WRKS, aka KISS FM. ESPN will lease 98.7 FM from Emmis Communications and will flip its AM signal to ESPN Deportes in September. … I'm a fan of WGBH's "American Experience" on PBS, but the Jesse Owensfilm at 7 p.m. Tuesday didn't show me anything I hadn't learned from ESPN's "SportsCentury" bio, which aired in 1999.